Christmas eve was a buzz of excitement around our home. Sadly I had to work for a portion of the day, but I was able to get home at a reasonable time, in order to start the prep for dinner, fix the girls' hair and be ready for church in time. Indeed we had a brown Christmas, but the balmy temps made for great travel conditions and even some outdoor play!
Unfortunately, Lincoln was napping just up until it was time for church, so I didn't get a picture of all 3 of the kids together.
We are so lucky that all of the grandparents agreed to travel up to us again this year. Christmas Eve was my side and Christmas day (another post) was Ryan's side. It's been fun to make it a family tradition to host Christmas rather than travel. I can't tell you how much the girls love waking up to presents from Santa on Christmas morning in their own home! This was something Regan started asking about when she was about 5 years old. We had many discussions over how to handle Christmas (living 100 miles from our extended families), and ultimately, this seems to work best for our family.
We waited before waking up Lincoln and I snapped a couple pictures of the girls with Grandma Jan and Papa too.
After church, we took a quick family picture (Lincoln lacks a smile, the entire family was starving, and the girls were soooooo ready to open a few presents).
But the picture turned out pretty good.
We were blessed to have Hope with us this Christmas. My mom's extended family gave her the best Christmas possible and she opened present upon present filled with such practical things for a 19 year old college student: food, gift cards and clothes. There were many moments of laughter and many quiet tears. We are so proud of her for finishing this semester with straight A's and we know her mom is smiling down on her with pride too.
And when the presents were all opened, the kiddos got ready for bed so Santa could come! The girls gathered up some cookies and milk and left their reindeer food nearby for Santa to hand feed to them. Without any snow, the girls decided not to sprinkle the food in the grass....and Ryan was very happy for that decision fearing some other critter would come into the yard.
And when we awoke the next morning, there were presents beneath the tree, just like Ellie our Elf had promised! It was a lovely Christmas Eve :)
To be continued.....
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